Conventionally, in the case of a hydrocephalus shunt surgical installation procedure with the catheter located at the top of the patient's skull, three incisions are required to install the hydrocephalus shunt. FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration the conventional incision locations performed in a conventional hydrocephalus shunting system installation procedure. Referring to FIG. 1, the incision locations applied to a patient during a hydrocephalus shunt surgical installation procedure are generally indicated by 100. The box shapes at the incision locations are intended to indicate the general area of the incisions, rather than the shape or size of the incisions. These three incisions are located at the patient's scalp forming a first incision 101, abdomen forming a second incision 102, and the base of the patient's neck forming a third incision 103. Once the incisions are made the shunt tubing is subcutaneously tunneled from the abdomen incision 102 to the third incision 103, using, for example, a long trocar, which may also be referred to as a tunneler, and/or inserter, and/or introducer. Then the shunt tubing is further manually subcutaneously tunneled by common surgical hand tools, such as forceps, from the third incision 103 to the first incision 101, forming a complete and continuous subcutaneous path between the first and second incisions. The third incision 103 is generally required because the extreme curvilinearity of the path between the first and second incisions 101 and 102, and prevents direct tunneling between the first and second incisions with a typical semi-ridged, manipulable trocar tunneling instrument. It is advantageous to minimize the number of incisions required to perform a surgical procedure in order to minimize bodily trauma, possibility of infection, and recovery time.
Therefore, there exists a desire for a surgical tool that allows the surgeon to route the drainage tube between the first and second incisions without the third incision to both increase surgical productivity and minimize patient trauma.